The relationship of measures of sex-typed play with clinician ratings on degree of gender disturbance.
Forty-nine boys, aged 3 to 11 years, who were referred for an evaluation of a potential gender identity disorder of childhood, were assessed with a standardized in vivo behavioral observation of sex-typed play in an alone condition and with the parent-report Bates-Bentler Games Inventory. Without access to these measures of sex-typed play, an independent clinical psychologist rated each of the subjects on a 9-point scale that indicated the degree of severity of a gender disturbance, based upon child and parent interviews and a complete psychological test battery. The percentage of feminine play in the behavioral observation procedure was found to be correlated significantly with the clinician rating of degree of gender disturbance (r = .55). The Games Inventory was found to differentiate significantly the gender-disturbed boys from the nonclinical reference group on its feminine/preschool games, masculine nonathletic games, and athletic games subscales and on its composite index of feminine play preference; however, only the composite index (and none of the 3 subscales) was correlated significantly (r = .34) with degree of severity of gender disturbance.
Rekers
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GA
Hall Psychiatric Institute, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia 29208.
Morey
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SM
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings